Evernote for Mac update: Better AppleScript support and more

Last week we released an update to Evernote for Mac (v 1.11), which contained a couple of interesting new features. Check for updates to make sure that you’re on the latest release. Download Evernote for Mac here »

Enhanced AppleScript support

This update dramatically improves Evernote’s support for AppleScript. We have a dedicated page that outlines all of the new capabilities. If you’re familiar with AppleScript, then prepare to have a field day. We have the non-coders covered too. In advance of this release, we partnered with Veritrope.com to develop a number of scripts, which enable some useful and time-saving functionality.

The Veritrope site also has lots of other scripts, snippets and ideas. Make sure to check it out.

Improved new user experience

Over the past few months, we have been making lots of tweaks to improve the new user experience. This release adds a helpful overlay in the New Note area to help acquaint first timers with the interface and types of note that they can create. The overlay appears the very first time a person launches Evernote.

Fixes and enhancements

As always, the release has lots of stuff that you can’t see—stuff that makes your Evernote experience better, smoother and more reliable.

I just posted a new AppleScript project here:
http://veritrope.com/tips/idea-scroll/

It’s certainly a more “entry level” experience as you can just download the app and click on it to run — or set it up for use with a keyboard shortcut.

That said… the nice thing about AppleScript is that, the more interest you take in it, the more you are able to customize the things your computer can do for you. Sometimes I think of it as the difference between an “off-the-rack” suit versus something more tailored: Sometimes you just want to grab something to wear quickly. Other times, you’d like to make the effort to get a better fit.

Either way, a good AppleScript implementation within a program like Evernote allows people at either end of the continuum to enjoy new functionality and fun extensions of applications into new places. If you look around the internet, you’ll see thousands of scripts that people use to avoid repetitive tasks, connect programs together, and solve problems that are too small for a software company to write an app for.

When it’s done right, it’s really a massive help to people in a variety of circumstances. That’s why, to my mind, the work that Evernote put into the AppleScript additions is a big deal — and it opens up a lot of creative, time-saving possibilities.

In other words… it’s what computers *are supposed* to do for us!

But we’re really just getting started with the new stuff! What are you looking for in an AppleScript? (I got the ease of use part… but which things are of interest to you?)

FYI — not only is there an AppleScript that does this now… but with a little bit of help, it was actually written by the person who asked in the first place!:
http://veritrope.com/code/date-sensitive-file-importer/

I’m having trouble installing the scripts, since I don’t know where to save them to make them appear in Evernote. Outlook has a scripts menu and a folder in which to install new scripts, but I can’t see how to do the same thing in Evernote. The documentation on Veritrope doesn’t say anything other than “save it somewhere”.